Chiral Phonons in Moiré Superlattices

We discover chiral phonons at the lowest energy bands in moiré superlattices. The moiré chiral phonons we uncover are the collective excitations of the stacking domains. Their origin is uniquely attributed to the stacking configurations whose interlayer binding energy breaks the C2z symmetry on the moiré length scale. Within elastic theory, we use a general symmetry analysis to provide a complete classification of van der Waals heterostructures...